I guess the problem I have is that the words "generic" and "flawed" are too subjective. On their own they don't mean anything. They don't convey anything. Words like "flawed" and "generic" need examples to back them up if they are to mean anything to another human being.

For instance the "conventional wisdom" in these forums and elsewhere is that Oblivion's landscapes are "generic." Without examples the word "generic" conveys nothing. It is not an argument. One person's "generic" is another person's "gorgeous." We need more information than "generic" if we are to have a dialog. But some folks toss this term out and leave it at that. Too often I think they're things they've heard other people say and they're simply repeating it.

It's hard to have a discussion about these things when the people you disagree with speak in catchphrases and soundbites and don't put any original thought into what they're saying.

What's holding you back? Install a few mods and the game looks better than Skyrim:
- HD textures: Qarls' texture pack redemized and optimized
- Harvest flora to make plants dissapear once you harvest
- RAEVWD to view distand buildings and objects
- Falling stars mod
- Stereo sound overhaul for betters sounds
- Natural environments to upgrade the flora
- All DLC and SI to make the world even bigger
- Unofficial patches, supplementals and the mod "stutter remover" to fix 99% of the bugs
- If you want more difficulty use FCOM or just OOO (haven't tried it myself)

Maybe someone adds a perk like system one day (like Skyrim) but other than that it's HD for me

Besides what you mention, we now have two LandscapeLOD generation utilities ... tes4ll and Oscape ... that at long last let lay-folk improve the quality of distant landscapes. A standard mesh set created with tes4ll can go far to lessen the number of floating trees (and structures) and near-far land height mismatches. It doesn't catch every mismatch on its own, but provides a means for us to add further corrections via easily obtainable coordinates. (I finally made the area just outside Skingrad's west gate look nearly perfect at distance after a number of my own corrective coordinates were added. That area was a total mess before.)

As to perks, seems to me the benefits we receive at certain skill-level milestones can be seen as perks of a sort. (Some of which I feel are overpowered, but that's neither here nor there.)

-Decrepit-

Hmm, nah. It's already been done I'm assuming by modders. Maybe if they remade Arena or Daggerfall? Eh, then I would officially be confined to my apartment, and forgo this reality for Mundus.